Tag Archives: ivory

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I was pleased to present testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on organized crime, extremist militias, and terrorism as they relate
to Africa’s wildlife, protected areas, and park rangers, 5/18/17. This hearing was called by Chairman Ed Royce who has been a leader on addressing terrorism in Africa, wildlife trafficking, and a supporter of exploration. I spoke in my capacity as an investigative journalist and a National Geographic Society Explorer.

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Last week the New York Times ran a shameful Op-Ed entitled, “The Ivory-Funded Terrorism Myth,” which falsely claimed that ivory is not funding terrorist activity in Africa, and suggested that even if there is ivory-funded terrorism (let’s just call it “regional militias,” he suggests), what happens in Africa when it comes to terrorism is okay as long as it stays in Africa.

The author, Tristan McConnell, who wrote a nearly identical piece for USA Today a year ago, bases his argument on a single 2011 report linking Somalia’s Shabab to the ivory trade. For him to criticize a Shabab-ivory link–amplified by politicians and in Kathryn Bigelow’s film, “Last Days of Ivory”–is one thing (I did not find a Shabab link during my reporting either, though the Times has), but to paint the brutality going on in central Africa as not terrorist activity, or not “international” unless it crosses the Atlantic Ocean, is absurd, and worse. These groups are operating across multiple states, ivory is part of their funding, and park rangers on the ground are being killed for standing between terrorists and their human victims, too.

Joseph Kony, the Janjaweed, Seleka in CAR, and Hutu FDLR in the Congo are all terrorists killing for ivory in central Africa. Your own reporting has spoken to the connection, including even to the Shabab link questioned by your writer.

In many places in central Africa where terrorist groups kidnap children, rape women, steal food and medicine, and disrupt community, park rangers are the only law enforcement on the ground to confront them. To support these rangers is to support the fight against terrorism itself.

As National Geographic has pointed out in a recent documentary and story, the ivory-for-arms trade in central Africa runs separately from, and parallel to, the organized crime form of ivory trafficking taking place in East Africa. It’s wrong to play the terrorism card to bring attention to a problem, and it’s wrong to play the terrorism card to ignore a problem, too.

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National Geographic film director JJ Kelley has put together a collection of outtake videos from behind Warlords Of Ivory. Though they didn’t make the cut, they include some of my favorite adventures. Here’s a link.